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Sites Needed Feb. 8th for On-Court Cancer Fundraiser

The 2013 USTA Arkansas Special Tennis Event of the year award recipient is soliciting tennis facilities to hold fundraising events on February, 8th 2014 in support of "Keep The Ball In Motion -- Rally And Give Back." This annual relay is organized by high school student, Teah Flynn, to raise money supporting Genomic Cancer research. 2014 will be the second annual event following its debut last year. Multiple facilities around the state will be participating, as well as other facilities across the nation.

The events are simple to organize. Only one court is needed and the format is uncomplicated and fun. The relays will consist of six players or less hitting tennis balls back-and-forth over the net for up to 12 hours. “A Tennis Relay is fun with no special skills required enticing people who don’t normally play to come out and give it a shot… as well as skilled players,” says Teah.

The entry fee is $10 per person with all proceeds donating to the Washington University School of Medicine of St. Louis, MO in their research against Genomic Cancer. Last year the tennis relays donated a combined total of $3,825.00 to their research. Teah's goal is to someday have 1000 courts participating, which would raise $720,000.00

"The reason I decided to be a part of the relay was because it was something different and out of the ordinary and for great cause, I thought Teah’s idea was fantastic. The results were good for the first year but I believe we can do better each year to come. We ran the event in 30 minute increments trying to sign groups up to either hit back in forth for a period of time or to play for that ½ hour slot. We started at 9:00am with all adult play and played all the way through out the day till 6:00pm with the adults. From 6:00pm - 9:00pm at night we had a junior night were all juniors could participate in the relay. We promoted the relay through membership emails, emailing different clubs throughout the area and we got the local news to cover it as well". - JD Hall, Tennis Director, Pinnacle Country Club

"Teah is a strong tennis player in our junior tennis program at Pinnacle. She is also a great role model for the younger kids. With this event, she also inspired many of our adults to come together for a great cause. I was glad to be a part of this fundraising event.

We had both juniors and adults playing tennis throughout the day and made quite a bit of money for the charity.

We booked off a court all day in 30 minute blocks and had the members fill the spots and make a donation to the charity. We had e-mail promotion, flyers at the clubs around town and even TV promotion for the event.

I was excited to be part of this fundraising event at Pinnacle Country Club. It was great to see all the members rally around this event supporting cancer research." -Jonathan Zielke, USPTA pro Level 1